"This little guy ACTUALLY WORKS THE WAY YOU EXPECT IT TO!", states Raymond Singer from Cut to the Story Films while using the AKiTiO Thunder Dock.
“Just like you probably were, I was pretty stoked to add a nifty iMac to my editing suite. Even more excited to plug in a first generation Mac Pro. What a screamer. And Thunderbolt? Wow, love that Promise RAID! But holy catfish, Batman, what to do with my trusty SATA RAIDs?! Are they on their way to a garage sale? Paperweights maybe? How do I get all my files over to the new Thunderbolt RAID?! Then there’s the material that’s coming in from clients on USB3 drives. I’m running out of ports! And don’t even get me started on those FireWire 800 drives that are on the shelf or that clients bring their footage on.”
“OK, no problem. There are a few Thunderbolt hubs that give you USB ports, maybe a FireWire 800, too. Some give you an audio and Ethernet port. (If you know why you’d actually need those ports, please share your thoughts with me.) I tried ‘em. All. Each one’s a little different, but they do seem to share one thing in common. In my experience, they all fail. They burn out. They have weak power supplies. Some are actually noisy. (I don’t know how a hub can be noisy, but there you are.) Bottom line — they’re unreliable. The last thing I need in my edit suite is an unreliable piece of gear.”
“ENTER THE AKITIO THUNDER DOCK. (Trumpets blare, drums roll!) This quiet little rectangle plugs into your Thunderbolt port and gives you a second Thunderbolt port, two USB3 ports, a FireWire 800 port and — here’s the kicker: two independent SATA ports to play your legacy RAIDs with nary a grumble or dropped frame! No, wait a minute, the real kicker is that this little guy ACTUALLY WORKS THE WAY YOU EXPECT IT TO! And keeps on working. Quietly.”
“Tell you the truth, I don’t know what else to say about the Thunder Dock. IT WORKS RELIABLY should be enough (but don’t forget the SATA ports). My experience is that the others don’t. Buy it. It’s reasonably priced. Use it. Your drives will hum and you’ll be happy. You’ll forget it’s there. That’s how good it is. Seriously.”
Raymond Singer is an actor, editor, cinematographer, and award-winning screenwriter of Disney’s Mulan; HBO’s Iron Jawed Angels; Dreamworks’ Joseph, King of Dreams; and half a dozen movies for television. His acting career includes appearances in more than 100 television shows, two TV series, and several feature films, as well as plays both on and off Broadway. His production company, Cut to the Story, has created documentaries for nonprofits, schools, and the State of California, and has also made concert and music videos. Ground Operations: Battlefields to Farmfields, a documentary about Iraq and Afghan war veterans who find healing in organic farming, which he co-produced, shot, and edited, won the Best Solution Award at the 2013 Cinema Verde Film Festival.
Learn more about Raymond Singer’s work and watch videos of it at his company’s website at www.cuttothestory.com.